What kind of crap is this?

I was under impression Nikon will service their equipment as long as it was purchased with a US warranty. Can you elaborate?
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Nikon has officially sanctioned distribution channels and officially sanctioned distributors for US sale of their products. These distributors charge more. If you buy Nikon's upper-end photographic products through an officially sanctioned channel, your warranty is honored and the products can be serviced. If you buy products that have come through unsanctioned channels, Nikon will not honor the warranty, and, in fact, will refuse to even service products when the owners are willing to pay for repairs.

Honoring warranties on products distributed through sanctioned channels, while absolutely refusing service for legally obtained products through unofficial channels, protects the prices of the sanctioned distributors' wares, keeping prices for them higher than otherwise.

Mike

www.mikespinak.com
 
Actually, you can get service for your gray market Nikon equipment, but you have to send it to the repair facility in its country of origin.

Ok, so do you stand behind your product or not?
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As far as Luminox is concerned, my impression is that the answer to this question has been "No" for a long time.
 
As far as Luminox is concerned, my impression is that the answer to this question has been "No" for a long time
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Hmmm wonder if the same is true about my MB Microtec? I've had no problems and when it's trashed I'm definitely going another route.
 
Typically, you have certain warranties by operation of state law that give you rights against the seller, such as the "warranty of merchantability" (In effect, the product must function as one would reasonably expect of such a prioduct - as determined by a jury.:thumbup: )

Under federal law, these warranties provided by law can only be disclaimed by clear notice BEFORE sale. "Lawyer" talk inside the package has no legal effect.

Why do manufacturers put "lawyer language" inside the package? Because few are aware of their rights.
 
lcranston said:
I had a Traser that needed service and I found the same restrictions applied.
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I bought a traser at a discounted price from a vendor on ebay, though before I bought the watch I asked them if they are an authorized dealer or not because I did want a valid warranty. They assured me that they are an authorized vendor, and I had no trouble registering my purchase at the tracer website (for the extra time added to their warranty after you register).
Apparently traser does not require their authorized vendors to sell at any particular price point, but require using an authorized vendor for warranty purposes.
I haven't had to send the watch in for service, though.
 
This practice was illegal at one time. In the 1950's this type of price fixing was called "fair trade pricing." It was made illegal and was illegal for quite a while until Proctor and Gamble won a lawsuit (I think in the 1980's) allowing them to control retail prices because charging too low a price could hurt support for the product. By that they meant "technical support" or warranty. I'm still trying to figure out what kind of technical support laundry detergent needs.

We make much of our capitalistic system and then we allow the courts to get in involved in market manipulation. It doesn't make much sense to me.

For the Nikon owner, the warranty issue relates to Nikon USA (the importer and distributor) not Nikon (the Japanese manufacturer.) Nikon (the manufacturer) will provice warrantly service on any Nikon product. Nikon USA, however, will provide it only on product that it has sold. Nikon USA won't even provide paid service on products they didn't sell. So if you buy a gray market Nikon product and want service you will need to ship it to Japan or England or somewhere else to get it. Another example of the courts helping market manipulation.
 
Not only Luminox - There are a lot of Rolexes getting shipped in from SW Asia right now because our boys can pick them up at local prices cheap. If you are on the market and want U.S. service, check carefully any non retail sources.
 
I'd be VERY CAREFUL with the Rolex issue, since I've seen some impressive Rolex counterfeits, which you can tell only by opening the case. Rolex PRICE FIXES WORLDWIDE!

If you want to be a Rolex dealer, you need to sell at their prices, and that's all there is to it. However, the Rolex warranty is only good for a year and there are many venues (including Rolex) that will service their product. There is NO haggleing with a the price of a new Rolex from an authorized dealer. A used Rolex is a different story.

Another area where there is alot of price fixing going on these days is the furniture market. Surefire recently pulled the "you sell at our price...or else deal" as well. This is one of the reasons that eBay has become such a popular venue for some retailers that are willing to undercut the competition.
 
marcangel said:
This is one of the reasons that eBay has become such a popular venue for some retailers that are willing to undercut the competition.
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VERY interesting point!
 
Anti-trust laws mostly prohibit two sorts of behavior: 1) becoming virtually the only source of a classs of product (monopoly); and 2) conspiring with others to restrict competition (price-fixing; market allocation ["You get New York. I get Chicago and Boston."]).

Rolex, for example, does not have a monopoly of wristwatches. They are but one of many manufacturers.

Rolex cannot "conspire" with itself. That is a basic point of anti-trust law and is quite logical.

Hence the failure of anti-trust laws to prevent any manufacturer from requiring its sales network to stick to set pricing.
 
Evolute said:
Nikon has officially sanctioned distribution channels and officially sanctioned distributors for US sale of their products. These distributors charge more. If you buy Nikon's upper-end photographic products through an officially sanctioned channel, your warranty is honored and the products can be serviced. If you buy products that have come through unsanctioned channels, Nikon will not honor the warranty, and, in fact, will refuse to even service products when the owners are willing to pay for repairs.

www.mikespinak.com
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If that is true, it is new, this is not my experience with Nikon and I have trouble believing it. The reason why I have trouble believing this is twofold: 1) I have brought a camera, that was not purchased in the US to an authorized service for repair (albeit not on warranty). It was serviced no questions asked.
2) Nikon is perhaps the most professional of all outfitters. There are many fotographers that travel a lot and rely on their camera. If the equipment breaks, they need to be able to get it repaired anywhere in the world. As a matter of fact, that always used to be the big draw of Nikon. As a matter of fact, for their flaggship model, the F4 (I know I know its been a long time since), they used to include a worldwide warranty. A little booklet that did not come with "lower" models (but AFAIK was included with the F3 as well) allowed warranty repair anywhere in the world.

Ooops, just read your post, Knifeoutlet, that makes sense, though I still got service for Nikon that wasn't purchased here.

Also, these official distributors do not charge 40% more as is the case with Luminox ($500 for a watch that inofficial channels sell for $300). The warranty policy was the reason why I didn't buy a Luminox, nor will I ever until they change their policy :barf: .
I wonder how the merchandise gets to the "unauthorized" dealers?
 
There are a LOT of products in the consumer world like this. I used to work at a brick and mortar specialized retail store (paintball), and most companies there do it too. Store owners like it, because it stops the online drop ship companies from putting good a good business out on the street.

It's hard to pay more for a product like that, but my time spent in retail (and seeing the same business slowly close down), I pay more attention to WHO I'm buying from, rather than the price tag. Service/honesty come first.
 
Not long ago I wanted a certain Seiko watch. Well I found a couple of places along with 2 very different prices.

One was a small shop but not an authorized dealer and had the watch for the price of $180 USD. The other one was an authorized dealer. Price for the watch at this location....$400. Pretty big difference don't you think.

I opted for a Casio G-Shock for $60, which ironically is also not from an authorized dealer. One authorized Casio dealer had the same Casio G-Shock for $140.

Go figure.:confused:
 
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